Impostor cops plea to gun charge

Tuesday, June 18, 2002

The Associated Press

OWEN SOUND, Ontario -- An American fugitive wanted for allegedly posing as a rescue officer after the Oklahoma bridge collapse pleaded guilty to a weapons charge Monday and was turned over to Canadian immigration authorities.

William Clark, 29, of Tallapoosa, Mo., pleaded guilty to one count of careless storage of a firearm and was sentenced to time served since his June 9 arrest while waiting to board a ferry in Tobermory, Ontario, on Lake Huron.

Police found a loaded rifle in a case behind the driver's seat of Clark's vehicle when he was arrested.

Clark faces several charges in the United States, including fraud and larceny, for allegedly impersonating a U.S. Special Forces member in the rescue effort after the May 26 collapse of a bridge over the Arkansas River that killed 14 people near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma.

He now faces likely extradition to the United States because Clark previously was deported from Canada in 1998 after a fraud conviction in Toronto.